There is no title yet
by Teiko
Summary: The Digidestined kids are all grown up...and now their kids are finding themselves in their parent's shoes! Please read and reveiw! (The couples are Taiora, Mimoe, and Takari.)
1. Default Chapter Title

Chapter One: Kaori

Kaori pulled her blue hair into two braids as fast as she could. Late, late, late!

"Kido Kaori! I'm waiting!" Her father yelled up the stairs of their stately California, USA home.

"Dad, I can't find my other shoe!"

"Wear your slippers then, your teacher doesn't care! I have to be at the office by eight!"

She scrambled into the kitchen, one sneaker clutched in her hand, the other on her foot. "Found it. I thought Mom was going to take me to school today."

"They had a script rewrite last night. She left at 5:30," he answered as they walked out to his car. 

"Poor Mom."

Kaori looked a lot like her parents, with her father's blue hair and her mother's face. Her mother, Mimi, was a Hollywood actress. Her father, Joe, was her mother's agent and a doctor on top of that. She'd always lived in America, but spoke Japanese fluently, thanks to her tutor.

"I don't mind," she wrote in her autobiography-or journal, as some might call it-"I don't doubt that they love me at all. Sure, a lot of the time we're apart. But there're lots of special times. Like my birthday, every year, we go to the zoo or Knotts Berry Farm or Disneyland, someplace like that. And on their birthdays and their anniversary, we just rent movies (not ones that Mom's in though, she doesn't like to watch herself, keeps saying things like "See that? I should have put much more emphasis on the YOU than the STUPID") and order takeout and sit at home.

"I am a perfectly adjusted child. Plus, I've been the Emmys four times!"

"Have a good day, Dad!"

"I love you!"

Ah, yes, school. Kido Mimi for a mother had assured Kaori instant popularity. That and the fact that she took a movie star to the first school dance. The moment she walked in the door, her best friend-of-sorts, Celia Annerlove, came running over. Celia was the other most popular girl in the seventh grade.

"Hi Kaori!"

"Hi, Celia," Kaori said. It was November, and she was just a little tired of Celia's perkiness.

"So, the dance Friday? Who're you going with?"

She shrugged. "It's only Monday, I've got days to decide...why, who're you going with?"

Celia began jabbering away, and Kaori tuned her out. She stopped at her locker, and as she opened the door, six folded notes fell out. 

"More invitations to the dance, I bet," Celia said, grinning.

"Yeah..." Kaori agreed. But her eyes were on something in the back of her locker...a little computer thing with a blinky light....

Chapter Two: Michitarou

"How was your day?" Michitarou's mother asked him as he walked into their Odaiba apartment.

"Fine," he answered, slumping into a chair by the kitchen table. His sister Kuara was sitting in the other seat, having her hair done. "When will Daddy be home?" she asked quietly.

"In an hour or so," Mom answered, holding a piece of her own hair to Kuara's. "It's amazing how close our hair color is," she said often. Not only that, but Kuara looked an awful lot like their mother when she was younger.

Michitarou was 12, and a bit loud, Kuara was 10, and quiet as a mouse. Sometimes she got picked on at school. Their mother was named Kari, with light brown hair and brown eyes. Their father was Takaishi Takeru (TK for short), and he had kind of a gold hair color, like Michitarou. But his father's eyes were blue like Kuara's, and his were brown.

Grabbing an apple, Michitarou disappeared into the bedroom he shared with his sister. He had lots of homework, but didn't feel like doing any of it.

It just wasn't fair, he'd said a hundred times. Normally, he thought his Uncle Matt was the coolest person in the world. He used to be in a ROCK band! They had music videos and everything!

And only two years ago, he'd announced he was going to move back to Japan, permanently. This'd made Michitarou and Kuara happy as they could be.

"Why couldn't he just STAY PUT?!" he yelled at his soccer ball. Must be something with traveling for so long on tours. Because Matt had just up and left, going to all the countries no one's ever heard off and therefore he's never been too. Every now and then he got a postcard, though. Thinking about it, he picked up the shoebox he kept them in.

Funny, there was this little thing; it looked kind of like one of those virtual pets.

"Must be Kuara's," he muttered, tossing it on her bed.

Chapter Three: Kuara

"People don't think I'm very smart," Kuara wrote carefully in her notebook—English, so her brother couldn't read it. "Not that they think I'm dumb, but not anything special either.

"My teacher, Yolei-san, knows differently. She's my mom and dad's friend too. She knows that I'm really good at reading and writing English, even though I don't bother to speak it, it's not that I can't. I just don't say anything." She chewed on the eraser of her pencil for a moment, then continued.

"Last year, she gave me an English book to read. The kind those six-year-olds in America read. I was done with it pretty fast, and Monday, yesterday, she gave me this book. It's called Flying Solo, by someone named Ralph Fletcher. One girl in it hasn't said a word in six months, since the day a boy who liked her died. The last thing she said to him was something kind of mean. Isn't that horrible? I'm on chapter eight. Maybe I'll be finished with it by the end of this week. Maybe I should become mute. I haven't said anything today except "I love you", "cereal", "here" "When's Daddy coming home" and "stop". I'm keeping a list of my words every day."

"Those mean kids at school started to bother me today, but Yolei-san stopped them. They were flinging these tiny rubber bands at my arms and they stung. That's when I said stop. I wish they could just leave me alone."

The living room slider door opened. Kuara looked up.

"Honey, dinner'll be ready in about five minutes, okay?" Her mother said. "Your father called, he's just dropping something off at Aunt Sora and Uncle Tai's, so we'll eat when he gets home." Kuara nodded.

"More later," she scribbled, then shut the book. Looking in the slider door in her bedroom, she could see her brother, Michitarou, with the postcards from their Uncle Matt all spread out around him. Two matching some things with flashing lights were lying on her bed. 

She wondered what they were.

Chapter Four: Natto and Emika

"I've decided I want to be more independent," Emika said, right in the middle of her third math problem.

Natto looked up from his own homework. "What? Why?"

His sister, younger than him by a year, shrugged. "Because. It's a good thing to be, isn't it? And then you're not a burden to anyone else."

"What's a burden?" Otoyoku asked from where he was sitting on their couch. Since he was only eight, he was already done with his homework (if you could even call it that) and was playing video games. "It sounds like a backpack."

"A burden is…something you don't like, I think, or something like that. Anyway, that's not my point."

"Just think of it as a backpack filled with rocks you have to carry," Natto suggested. "That's what I think of. Emika, you're not a burden to anyone."

She just kind of looked at him blankly. "What about Mom and Dad?"

"They're supposed to take care of you, duh," Otoyoku said. "They're your parents."

"But I'm eleven now. I have my own house key. I want to buy my own clothes and stuff like that."

Natto sighed. He understood what she was thinking. 

Last night, his mother, Sora, and father, Tai, had called a family meeting. They'd explained that money was short, and so they were going to have to cut back. 

"Don't worry, everything will be fine," Dad had assured them. "This'll only last until I get my next paycheck. There was a delay, and we want to make sure we don't dip into our savings. Okay?"

"You're blowing this way out of porpation," Otoyoku said. He liked using large words, but almost never got them right.

"Proportion," Emika corrected. "And I'm just saying that—"

"We know what you're saying. But there's nothing wrong with depending on your parents, even when you're eleven."

She didn't say anything. More than anything, Emika wanted to figure herself out. Example: When people asked about her cousin, Kuara, they said, "she's nice, very shy and quiet though." Emika wasn't either of those things. Or when they talked about her brother? "Very smart. He loves to read, and his grade hasn't slipped below a B+ since third grade!" Otoyoku was just plain cute, and he played up to it all the time. Like those big words---she was sure he could pronounce them if he actually tried.

But Emika? "She and the youngest one's hair looks sort of like yours," said someone once while talking to her father, at the Christmas party at her mother's work two years ago. That was about it.

"I have no personality," she said to her mirror the next day. Since then, she'd spent the better part of two years trying to figure out what she was. She'd tried being quiet, like Kuara, but she had just too much to say. She couldn't keep her mind on her studies like Natto. She knew she was too old to be cute. Her other cousin, Michitarou, was cool. She'd tried being cool, in the more girl-ish sense of the word, but her mother flatly refused to let Emika use her makeup and Emika didn't usually have enough money to buy it herself, it always disappeared into bets with her brother and older cousin.

She did buy some silver lipstick once, though.

Chapter 5: Otoyoku and The First Discovery

Otoyoku was, as his sister said, cute. He was short for his age, making him look only six or so, with a large amount of thick brown hair that stuck out in odd ways. He liked to mess around with the sounds of words, which started the habit for him of mispronouncing things. Drove his teacher crazy, but everyone else thought it was adorable.

"Darn it," he said, smacking his handheld video game, "lost again. I have to go all the way back to phase one!"

His brother and sister seemed thoroughly uncaring.

"I'll be right back." He jumped up and ran into his room that he shared, and looked through his drawer for the game cartridge he had in mind.

Beep!

Otoyoku stopped. 

Beep!

After another moment of fumbling, he found what appeared to be beeping. A little electronic boxy device, which gave another loud beep as he picked it up. He noticed a kind of a line drawing on the side, looked sort of like a lighthouse or something. "Where are you?" flashed on the screen.

"Odaiba, Japan," he said, then pressed a button, to see if it would stop beeping. His words appeared on the screen, then disappeared. 

"Too weird," flashed now.

Otoyoku gulped. "Natto…come here…."

Natto and Emika both appeared at the door. "What's wrong?" his brother asked.

"Is this yours?" he held up the computer.

"No…where did you find it?"

"It was beeping at me when I was looking through here! I picked it up, and it said "where are you?" on the screen. I said, "Odaiba, Japan," and---

"Hold up," Emika interrupted. "You answered it? How did you do that? And why did you tell it where you are? What if some whacko was on the other end?"

"I just said it!" Otoyoku exclaimed. "It typed it itself! Then it said, 'Too weird'."

"Yeah well, that's what this is all right," Natto said. "I think we should show this to Mom and Dad."

Chapter Six: Communication

"What is this thing?" Kaori wrote in her biography. "How did it get in my locker? Why does it seem kind of familiar? Those were the thoughts that were going through my head as I said at the lunch table, purposefully ignoring Celia's ever-going chitchat. There's a little picture on it, but I'm not sure what it is." She stopped writing as a small red blip appeared on the screen, surrounded by little lines that looked a lot like a map. "Where are you?" she wondered out loud.

There was a pause before "Odaiba, Japan," formed on the screen. In Japanese, she noticed. 

"Too weird." Pause. "Natto? Who the heck is Natto?"

"Did you say something?" Celia asked, looking at her.

"No. Uh…I have to go make a phone call."

"Okay, but hurry back," Celia said. "I need you to help me decide who to let take me to the dance."

There were only two phones available to the students of her middle school, other than the one that the secretary had. She walked quickly (since the halls were filled with students and teachers) to the nearest one, worried she would lose her nerve for what she wanted to ask before she got there.

Blll-eeeeeep! rang her mother's cell phone. Blll-eeeeeep!

"Hello?"

"Mom?" She clutched the phone. "Mom, it's me."

"Kaori?" Her mother's voice became worried suddenly. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just have something really important I wanted to ask you."

"What's that?"

Kaori gulped, and wondered why she felt so compelled to do this. "Could we go to Japan? Like, this afternoon?"

"For how long?"

She grinned. Most other parents would say something like "Well, how about this weekend?" or even "We just took a vacation two months ago! Can't you wait for winter break?" 

"I'm not sure. A few days, at the least?"

"Sure. I've got some old friends there I haven't seen since you were a baby, I'd love to go for a visit. Grab your suitcase when you get home, okay? I'll book us a flight."

"Simple as that?"

"Well, you can take a break from school, can't you?"

Kaori giggled. " I don't mind at all. Is Dad going to agree?"

"That's questionable, but you've never been to Japan, and it is a very important part of your heritage. I'm sure he'll understand if I talk to him long enough."

"Oh, thanks Mom! See you after school!"

Chapter Seven: The Second Discovery

Kuara tapped her brother on the shoulder. It was some time after dinner, and she still hadn't said anything else. 

"Huh?" Michitarou asked, twisting his head around to look at her. She pointed to their room and beckoned. He got up and followed her. 

"What are these things?" he asked, picking up the small computers things. Kuara shrugged.

Michitarou was used to his sister's quietness. She had a way of saying more with her face than most people. "Look--this one has the same drawing on it as the necklace Mom gave you."

She picked up the necklace, gold, with a pink middle and a darker pink design on that. A star. She really liked it.

"This one has a different thing on it…looks familiar, though I can't remember why."

Kuara pointed to the postcards from Uncle Matt. In the corner of each one was the same design.

"That's it! I wonder if Uncle Matt sent us these. I found one of them in my shoebox, but didn't recognize it…. Let's show Mom." His sister nodded.

Kari was sitting on the couch with T. K., watching the evening news. Michitarou had been sitting with them before Kuara came to talk to him. Figuratively, anyway.

"Mom? Dad?" he turned down the volume on the television. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?" 

Both their parent's mouths dropped open. 

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No…honey, I need to talk to your father about something," said their mother, somewhat forcefully dragging T. K. into the kitchen.

"I'd say this means something," Michitarou said. Kuara nodded.

Chapter Eight: Last but not Least 

Natto ran his hand under his pillow. He knocked something out on to his bed. "Ha-hah!"

"Is it one of those…things?" Emika asked. They had decided to check for any others before going to their parents.

"Yeah, I think so!" He looked it over. "This one's got a different design on it."

Otoyoku came in, holding the portable phone in one hand and the computer thing in the other. "Michitarou just called! He said he and Kuara found those things too. Two, one for each of them. And they recognize the pictures on it. One looks like a necklace their mother gave Kuara, the other their uncle draws a lot or something."

"There must be one more," Emika said. "I'm not about to be left out of this, whatever it is!"

"Look under your pillow or something," Natto advised.

She did--nothing. Under her bed--nothing. In her dresser drawers--still nothing.

"There just has to be one more," she said, sitting down on the edge of her bed, somewhat sadly. 

Her brothers sat down and tried to comfort her. "Let's all go to bed, okay? It's late, and we have school in the morning," said Natto, being reasonable.

"We'll find it soon! No one wants you to be left out, Emika!"

She smiled a little. "Okay." Rubbed her eyes. "Hai."

Beep!

Emika's eyelids fluttered slightly.

Beep!

She rolled over.

Beep!

Groaned. "Wha…t…?" Something was bumping into her hip, and it hurt. "I must have been lying on it," she said, sitting up and hitting her lamp switch. Otoyoku and Natto stirred from their beds on the other side of the room divided by a curtain. 

"Guys, wake up!" exclaimed Emika as she pulled out the thing in her pocket. "I found one of those…things!"

"Shhh," Otoyoku reminded her exaggeratedly, his eyes bleary. Natto slept on, snoring softly.

"Come here, Otoyoku," she said, beckoning. He stumbled over and looked at the strange device.

"Why do you think these things are so important?" he asked, turning his over.

"I don't know. Maybe we'll find out soon. Did Mom ask you to come home right after school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, when she was tucking me in and you were brushing your teeth. Said Aunt Kari and Uncle T. K. are coming over with Michitarou and Kuara. Someone else too---" his words were cut off by a huge yawn. "Can I go back to sleep now? I'm exhoustid."

"Exhausted," Emika corrected. "Yeah. I just wanted you to see this."

"I'm happy we all have one now," he said, curling back up in his bed.

"Me too."

Chapter Nine: Flight

"I loved flying," Kaori wrote in her autobiography as they waited in the airport terminal for their luggage. "Plus, it's so cool being in public with my mom. People--tourists, mostly--run up to her and ask for her autograph. Some people recognize me or my dad too, I was in a Disney Channel movie that came out last month. Acting is really cool, but I think I want to draw more. Maybe I'll do both.

"Anyway, on the flight I listened to my walkman a lot and tried to sketch the clouds. Celia called my mom's cell phone (can you believe that?) and wanted to talk about boys and stuff, but really, I'm not into that. I'm waiting to meet someone.

"Still waiting. For that AND my luggage."

Slap! went the pages of Kaori's book as she slammed it shut. "Dad, I'm tired…where are we staying?"

"Your mother was so excited you wanted to come here she went ahead and rented an apartment," he said, pretending to be exasperated, but smiling. "I know my dad," Kaori wrote once in her autobiography, "he usually acts like Mom's spending money bothers him, but really, he doesn't mind. He's just glad she has money to spend, and she isn't selfish with it, not really. She loves to send huge checks to charities. 'What else is this money for? I already have everything I need, you, your father, and so much money YOU could retire right now, Kaori.'"

"There it is," her dad said, pointing to a pink suitcase and two black ones coming on the conveyor belt. They grabbed them and made their way through the crowds to the exit. "I hope your mother's found us a taxi," Joe said.

"Over here!" Mimi exclaimed, beaming. There was a man holding up a sign that said "Kido" on it in kanji. 

He was standing next to a limousine. 

"I don't believe you," her father said as they loaded the trunk. 

"Isn't this cool?" Kaori exclaimed. "Does it have a television? What about a refrigerator?"

"Yes, it has all those," Mom said, "but we don't need them right now, we're just going a little ways."

Kaori busied herself with looking around. The very AIR smelled different here! And it was cooler than it had been back home, when she left, anyway. Maybe because it was painfully early in the morning.

"Now, when we get home, we'll all take a nap," her mother was instructing, "and then, I've made plans for us to visit Sora. She says Kari's coming over and bringing her kids too. They must be near your age now, Kaori! Except Otoyoku, I guess he'd be about seven. Well, anyway. We're going to have dinner there---"

"Mom?" Kaori interrupted. "Do you know these kids?"

"Well, no, but I know their parents very well." 

"But…they all know each other, don't they? I just hope they don't leave me out of everything." She frowned a little.

"Don't worry about it," her mother assured her. "Even if they do, I'm sure they'll warm up quickly." She looked over at Kaori's father. "Wake up, sleepyhead. We're almost there."

"Uhh," Joe mumbled. His glasses were sliding down his nose.

Kaori opened her autobiography and scribbled a note to herself. "Kaori, be glad you don't have to wear glasses. And if you do get them some time, get contacts."


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, I just wanted to add some quick notes here:

1) Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first few parts! This is not my first Digimon fanfiction, but it's the first I'm putting on Fanfiction.net. 

2) I don't speak Japanese, but I wanted the kids to have Japanese names. I found them on a website and have no idea if they make sense with their family names. Also, I think their family names are even different from the ones in the book and stuff.

3) I hope everyone likes how I'm going with this! There's more of the old Digidestined (including Izzy, excepting Matt) in this part. (There will be more Matt later. I think. I'm not sure.)

Chapter Ten: Dinner Party

"Kids! Did you clean up your room?" Tai called.

Emika paused. "Um…Natto and I cleaned our sides, but Otoyoku's still messy."

"No it's not. I don't see any stuff, do you?" Otoyoku said, his jaw clenching.

"It doesn't count to shove it under the bed!"

"Mind your own business!"

"Hey!" Tai yelled. "Our company's supposed to be here in ten minutes. Tomorrow, Otoyoku, clean your room right."

He pouted severely. "That's not fair! Emika shouldn't have been tattling!"

"Yeesh, what are you, three?"

"I am EIGHT!"

Tai gave his daughter a look that clearly said; "you're not helping!"

"Yeah, but you're really immature!"

"Both of you, stop it now and listen to me. Finish getting ready, and if I hear you guys fighting again, neither of you will get dessert! Understand?"

Suddenly the sounds of voices could be heard from the living room, where Natto and their mother were. Nodding quickly, Emika and Otoyoku ran in.

"Oh, it's so good to see you!" Sora exclaimed, hugging a woman with immaculate pale makeup and brown hair. Behind the woman stood a tall man with blue hair and glasses. 

"Are these the people Mom keeps talking about?" Emika whispered to Natto.

"I guess so," he answered, watching.

"This is Natto," Sora said, placing her hands on his shoulders firmly and pushing him forward. "He's 12."

"Hi."

"Hello," the man said. "I'm Joe."

"And I'm Mimi!"

"Nice to meet you."

"Where's your daughter?" Tai asked. 

"This is Kaori," Mimi said, pulling Kaori out from behind her. "Kaori, this is Natto."

"And this is Emika, she's 11 too, and Otoyoku, he's 8." Sora smiled. "How about you kids go get acquainted?"

"Want to see my room?" Emika asked.

"Okay," Kaori said, holding her autobiography notebook kind of tightly. She followed Emika. 

"You have an accent," Emika said, sitting down on her bed. 

Kaori nodded. "I'm from America."

"Really?" Otoyoku asked. 

"Yeah." As she sat down on the bed, a beeping began sounding. She fumbled for the little computer device in her pocket. Natto recognized it immediately. "What's that?" he asked, surprised.

"Uh, pager," said she quickly. 

"Nuh-uh," Otoyoku said defiantly. "We have those things too, and they're not pagers."

Both his brother and sister looked at him with shocked expressions. "Otoyoku! You told!"

"Wait, wait, hold up!" Kaori interrupted everyone. "You guys have these things too? Where the heck did you get them?!"

Emika held out hers. "We just--found them!"

"So did our cousins. They're coming over," said Otoyoku ecstatically. 

Chapter Eleven: Gathering

Kuara watched buildings go by, silently trying to figure out where they were going. "This isn't the way to Uncle Tai's," she thought. She debated saying something, but fortunately, Michitarou spoke.

"Daaad, where are we going?"

"To pick up Yolei-san and some other friends," TK said. 

"We need to talk to them about something important," Kari added. She sounded so worried it made her kids worry now too. TK patted her hand.

"Do you think this has anything to do with these things?" Michitarou asked Kuara in a whisper. In his hand he held the computery thing with the design that Uncle Matt drew.

Kuara shrugged. Even talking to her brother was difficult for her. 

When they stopped at the apartment building where Kuara guessed Yolei-san must live, four people were standing on the curb, even though it was rainy. "Good thing we have a minivan," Michitarou said. There would be just enough seats.

"Hi Kuara!" Yolei-san said cheerfully as she climbed in and shook off her umbrella. Kuara smiled hello.

"Hey, watch it Yolei! I'm all wet now!" said one of the people the kids didn't remember.

"You already were wet, Davis," she answered, sitting down in the middle row of seats.

"But now I'm more wet."

"Davis, would you please stop whining?" said a younger guy with smooth black hair. He sat in the back with the man called Davis. Finally in came the last man, this one with reddish hair. Kuara thought she might have seen him before--did he come to the school for some reason?

"Kids, this' Cody, Davis, and Izzy. You know Yolei," TK said. Then to the grown-ups, "You remember Michitarou and Kuara?"

"Last time I saw you guys, you were like four," Davis said to Michitarou.

Yolei caught how Kuara was staring at Izzy, with that look on her face that she got when she was trying very hard to remember what something meant in English.

"Remember me?" Izzy asked, peering over the back of the seat. "I came to the book fair last month with Yolei."

That was it! Kuara nodded and Izzy smiled.

Once they got to Uncle Tai's and introductions were made, Michitarou and Kuara went into the bedroom of their cousins. "Who's she?" Michitarou asked Natto, with a sort-of glare in Kaori's direction. He really wanted to talk to his cousins about the computer things, but they couldn't do that when there was a stranger around. Something about this demanded secrecy.

Kaori looked a mix of hurt and annoyed. "I'm Kaori."

"Oh," Michitarou said, just then realizing Emika and Kuara were comparing the little devices, and there was one too many. "Do you have one of those things too?"

"Yeah," she said, picking one out of the lineup.

For a moment everyone was quiet and looked at the various thingies. They were all blue, with three yellow buttons and the only way to tell them apart was by the designs on one side of the screen, which were all different.

"Let's see…this one your Uncle Matt knows about, right?" Emika said, pointing to one of them. "And this one Aunt Kari has a necklace of, and she gave it to Kuara." Kuara held out her necklace.

Kaori had whipped out a sketchbook and was copying the little pictures and sketching the things themselves. "I don't recognize any of these."

"Mine looks familiar, and so does Kaori's, to me," Emika said.

"Otoyoku's looks familiar to me," Michitarou said. "I think we might have a painting like that or something."

"Pecumiar," said Otoyoku.

"You mean peculiar," Emika corrected again.

Chapter Twelve: Worried Conversation

At first, the conversation between the adults was light as they drank coffee in the living room. 

"Have you heard from Matt recently?" Sora asked.

TK shook his head. "Not since the postcard from Iceland," he said.

"Iceland?"

Yolei sipped her coffee and tried not to choke, it was very strong. "So how long are you staying, Mimi?"

"Oh, we're not sure. I'm so happy Kaori wanted to come here, finally! It was a bit strange, she just called me at work and said 'can we go to Japan?'"

She nodded. "It must be quite a luxury to be able to just take off like that."

"Hey Kari, are you okay?" Davis asked her. He was still not that reasonable, and kind of hyper, but he wasn't all gooey over Kari anymore. That was a good thing.

"I'm worried about Michitarou and Kuara," she said. "I think…I think they've found Digivices."

Instantly everyone shut up.

"Really?" Cody asked. "Is that possible?"

Kari shrugged. "That's what I think, anyway. But I'm not sure that I want them to go."

No one had to ask where she thought they were going--the Digital world, isn't it obvious? 

"Do you think the other kids might have them too?" Tai asked. Now he looked worried.

"Kaori," Mimi whispered.

"Why're you all so scared?" Davis looked around at everyone. "We all went to the DigiWorld, and we were just fine!"

"But that doesn't mean it wasn't dangerous," said Yolei.

There was a pause.

"What can we do?" TK spoke. "Izzy, what're you doing?"

Izzy, meanwhile, had pulled out his laptop and was clicking away. "I'm trying to send something to the DigiWorld," he said. "A while ago, I wrote sort of a guide. Just notes, about which Digimon to avoid and don't do what Tai did to try and make them Digivolve and so on. I'm thinking that maybe this could help them."

"Uh," Tai said, looking pink, "do you have to include the story about me and SkullGreymon?"

Izzy nodded. "You don't want them to make the same mistake, do you?"

"I guess not."

"Can you give it to them directly?" Yolei asked.

Clickityclickityclick went the keys. "It wouldn't make sense to give it to them here, we're not even sure they're going. I can leave it in the DigiWorld as a book, I think." Clickityclickityclick. "There. Sent."

"I hope this helps," Joe said quietly.

Chapter Thirteen: Departure and Arrival

"You know what these look like?" Otoyoku said. "These look like those little digital pets that were so popular. Tamagotchis and stuff."

"They really do," Natto agreed as Kuara nodded.

"Where's your computer?" Michitarou asked. "If they are a toy, there should be a brand name or something on the back. We could see if they have a website."

"Good idea," Emika said, taking their laptop computer off their desk--there was no room for a full-sized computer--and setting it down on the bed. "Internet?" she asked as it booted up.

"Yeah. Do a search for…for…" he turned his mini-computer thing upside down and sideways. "I can't find a logo or anything."

"Me either," said Natto.

They each picked up their individual devices and searched them for some kind of company marking. Emika double-clicked on the Internet sever on the computer, still holding it in the other hand.

Suddenly the air was filled with a frantic, crackling white light. Kuara screamed, which really hurt her throat. Most everyone else screamed too, because the light was darting right THROUGH them, until they began floating off the ground and then--FWUMP--landed. 

But they were no longer in Natto, Emika and Otoyoku's bedroom.

Out of the surrounding woods peeked a dirty face that was also strange--strange because it was human. He was wearing equally messy clothes, and his hair was a faded green at the ends. His eyes lit up when he saw the laptop computer, which was lying on Emika's stomach. She was knocked out, along with everyone else.

The man ran forward, prepared to snatch the computer away, when suddenly---

"PEPPER BREATH!"

A fireball landed just short of the person, who turned around and took off. 

"And don't come back!" Agumon added.

"Are they okay, Agumon?" Biyomon asked, fluttering to the ground.

"Yeah. That creep was after the girl's computer!"

Tentomon buzzed around overhead. "He's far away now, guys. Maybe we should try to wake them up."

Chapter Fourteen: One Monster Per Person

Michitarou sat up feeling strangely disoriented. When his eyes cleared up, they fixed on Biyomon, the little pinky bird. "Aaaaah!" he half-yelped.

"Looks like they're waking up all ready," Patamon said cheerfully. "Hi!"

"Hi?" he repeated, like the little winged thing was speaking a different language. Kuara woke up too, and her eyes widened in fear.

"Don't be scared," Gatomon said. "You're Kari's daughter, aren't you? You look just like her. I'm Gatomon."

Kaori woke up next. "Oh my gosh…what are you guys?"

"We're Digimon!" Agumon exclaimed. 

"Fascinating," Natto whispered, watching. 

Emika woke up next and Otoyoku last. "Digimon?" Emika said, rubbed her shoulder. "But why are we here?"

"We can tell you all we know," Gabumon said. "Follow me!" Seeing no other alternative, they did. 

A round something was on the ground--metal, about two feet round, with something shimmering in the middle. Gabumon pressed a round red button on the circle and a holograph of a short old man came up.

There was a long pause, then the holograph spoke. "Great job, you clever Digimon, you found the kids!"

"Thanks," Patamon said.

Long pause. "I have some very important things to tell you. I'm afraid that there's quite a time gap here, so don't say anything until I finish. Oh, good, you have a computer. Would you use that cable there and plug it in? Thanks.

"The problem we have is this. An elite group of young computer hackers have somehow, well, hacked their way into the Digital World. They were trapped. I tried to help them, but they wouldn't listen to me. They started to work with Digimon, sort of like your parents---"

"Our parents?" said Kaori.

"---but now the Digimon that were working with them have turned violent, these people are not nice at all! You shouldn't trust any Digimon you don't know--what? Yes, your parents. I guess they didn't tell you anything, did they?"

"Well, look at your Digivices. Those computery things. These Digimon around you, there's one for each to be your friend. You need each other. They'll recognize the pictures. Go ahead, do that, then give me a call when you're done." He disappeared.

"This one's mine," Otoyoku said, holding out his.

"That's Hope!" Patamon said excitedly. "That's mine too!"

Kuara held out hers, and looked at the Digimon with eager eyes.

"I knew it," Gatomon said. "You sure are Kari's daughter! That's the Crest of Light!"

"My Uncle Matt drew this design on the postcards he sent me," Michitarou said. Gabumon was his Digimon; it was the Crest of Friendship. Natto's was the Crest of Knowledge, Tentomon was his Digimon. Emika's was the Crest of Love. "Same as Sora," Biyomon said, almost crying.

"I have no idea what this thing is," Kaori said, shrugging. Agumon looked.

"That's the Crest of Courage," Agumon said, "but…"

"But what?"

"But you're a girl!"

"Free country!" She stopped. "No, wait, that's not right here, is it."

Agumon sighed, he felt bad for being so rude. "I'm sorry. I was just expecting someone like Tai."

Chapter Fifteen: Second Contact

"Done, are you? All right, questions? And be patient for my answers," said the old guy.

"You're really old, aren't you?"

"What's your name?"

"How are you talking to us?"

"Yes, actually, I'm pretty sure I've died before your year! Quite amazing, really, but thanks to some help, I've worked out how to send messages to the future. Have you met Koushiro? Izzy? He helped me with the theory and science, but it only seems to work from the Digital World to the Digital World or to the real world, the real world has too much unnatural material and…my name? Gennai. I helped your parents, and all the Digidestined."

"Digidestined? What's that?" 

"Can we go home?"

"A Digidestined! Destined for…a Digimon…" Gennai paused, and they weren't sure it was because of the lag or he just didn't know what to say. "I never really stopped to think about the word, it always just…was! Well, the reason for Digidestined is usually because the Digital world is in trouble. It's not as stable as it might be! These special Digimon, the ones around you, need help to get bigger. That's where humans come in. Kids and teenagers just generally have more energy than adults do.

"Going home is a very tricky subject. I'm afraid I can't get the power we need to send you back until these hackers are taken care of."

"We can't go home?"

Pause. "I'm sorry, but don't worry! Your Digimon will take care of you as long as you take care of them, and my sensors show that Izzy has left sort of a manual for you not that far away! That's what everyone needs, a how-to book to the Digital World. Please remember to turn this projector off before you leave, I don't want the hackers to be able to trace me. If they do, they might be able to find this transponder. Who knows what might happen then. And it might be a wise idea to keep the book out of their hands too. I'll find you if I need you."

"Wait, I still want to ask you something," Kaori started to say, but because of the lag, Gennai didn't hear her. The image faded away.

Chapter Sixteen: 

Biyomon pressed the green button on the circle. "Only the one who turns it off can turn it back on," she explained.

Emika nodded and unplugged her and her brothers' laptop. "What do we do now?" 

"What is it?" Michitarou asked, looking at his sister. She was pulling on his sleeve and holding up a piece of loose paper. "Kuara thinks we should look for that book and then decide what to do."

"Doesn't she speak?" Kaori whispered.

"Hardly," Natto answered.

"It sounds like a good plan to me," Tentomon said. "But which way do we go?"

Otoyoku looked at his Digivice. He started pressing the buttons randomly, watching things go by on the screen.

"Hey, be careful!" Patamon said. 

"I am," he said. "Maybe this thingy knows where the book is."

"What about that blip in the corner?"

"Is this supposed to be a map?"

"I don't know, the ones I've used weren't like these."

Michitarou shrugged. "We don't have anything else to go on," he said. Kuara nodded.

So the group started walking, Otoyoku and Patamon in the lead, looking at the Digivice. When they walked in the right direction, the red blip got closer to the center bottom of the screen. "I think we're going the right way," Otoyoku said.

Kuara hissed through her teeth to get everyone's attention before pointed ahead excitedly. There was a very, very tall tree, and hanging from it, caught in some vines, was a plain-looking blue paperback book.

"Yeah!" Kaori exclaimed. "That has to be it!"

For a moment everyone stared, then Agumon said, "Who wants to try and get it down?"

"I will," Tentomon said. "I can fly." 

He flew upward, so high he appeared only a few inches tall. Zooming down moments later, he dropped the book into Kaori's outstretched hands. Then he hovered above Natto's head, the wind from his wings flattening Natto's hair.

"Let's see…there's an index. What should I look up?"

"Try 'digivolving'," Natto suggested, looking over her shoulder. "That means getting stronger for the Digimon, doesn't it?"

"I think so," Michitarou said. "How did you know that?

Natto thought. "I'm not sure."

Kaori flipped a several pages. "Here. Digivolving."

Chapter Seventeen: The Book—Levels and Digivolving

The known levels of the basic Digimon are, from weakest to strongest, Egg, Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega, and Armor Digivolve. In rare instances, Digimon have found ways to Digivolve into something else, an unclassified level, but we don't know how this is done.

As Egg and Baby, Digimon have little or no defense. As In-Training, they all have on small attack, the Bubble Blow. When they reach Rookie they achieve their own individual attacks, usually diminutive versions of their Champion ones.

The Champion level is the first level suitable for battling. The Digimon usually increase greatly in size when they reach this stage, but not all of them. (See Digimon Descriptions: Gatomon.) 

In order to reach any of these levels so far, the Digimon must have a decent amount of energy, and a Digivice is often used. But the Ultimate and Mega levels require "crests" and tags. Again, the Digimon must have sufficient energy, but their human must also be in danger. Never, ever try to force a Digimon to Digivolve. (See Digidestined's Stories: "Tai and SkullGreymon".)

The final level, which is slightly different than all the others, is the Armor Digivolve. For this level, which may be considered similar in power to Champion or Ultimate, no crests are needed. Instead, you require a DigiEgg, but not the kind that directly hatches a Digimon. They are DigiEggs of Courage, Love, Friendship, like the crests. A Digimon can't Digivolve with any DigiEgg that doesn't belong to it (you can tell who it belongs to because only the human of the Digimon can lift it). What's peculiar about this is Digimon can have more than one DigiEgg, therefore can Digivolve into something different, but still be Armor Digivolve and have about the same amount of power.

Of course, we have no idea how many different levels Digimon may have. We were constantly discovering new ones. 

Chapter Eighteen: Sly, Mixie, and Rev

Natto stopped reading—Kaori had given the book to him because she kept stumbling over the formal words. She sat next to him on the ground, looking at the pages.

"Who wrote that again?" Emika asked.

"Izzy," Michitarou said, reading a piece of paper Kuara handed him. "Yolei-san's friend."

"Yolei-san?" Emika echoed. "I had her for a teacher last year."

"Me too. Two years ago though," said Natto. "She was a new teacher then."

Gatomon looked thoughtful. "Do you think that's Hawkmon's Yolei, Patamon?"

"Maybe—" Patamon started to say, but a loud crash cut him off.

A huge green, leathery-looking bird was floating down from the sky. The crash had been it's feet knocking into and over a few trees. 

"Go, Mixie!" Someone shouted from the ground. That's when they noticed a someone was riding the leather bird.

"That's Dactylmon!" Emika said, looking at the screen of their computer. "There's something on this that came up on it's own, and that's what it says!"

"Dactylmon used to just be cranky when he first woke up, but he looks like he's cranky right now!" said Biyomon. "His favorite attack is Fossil Fire!"

Otoyoku exclaimed, "Wait a minute! Are you telling me that thing's going to attack US?"

"Quick, Agumon!" shouted Kaori--not that he wouldn't have been able to hear her otherwise, she was just too excited to be quiet. "Do that Digivolving thing!"

"Okay, but remember, it's been a while!" Agumon answered. "Agumon Digivolve to…Greymon!" Suddenly he became far bigger than Kaori, maybe three times as tall, with brown stripes and a brown head. 

Kaori stared. "Wow."

"Fossil Fire!" Dactylmon screeched. 

"Nova Flame!" Agumon, now Greymon, returned.

"Mixie!" shouted a different voice from somewhere near. "Get 'em! Fire!"

Gabumon tugged on Michitarou's arm. "We should look for those people," he said. Michitarou obiviously wanted to watch the fight. "Come on!"

He did, sinking into a crouch as they got nearer. Two men, probably in their mid-twenties, were cheering for the girl riding Dactylmon. They didn't look like some sleek hackers--they looked more like old high school bums. One's hair was brown with green ends, the other's was black. They wore heavy boots, sweatshirts, and baggy jeans.

The one with black hair, who was taller, was still cheering. The green haired one had stopped. "Sly, she's losing! She's got to back out!"

"No way! Mixie can do it!"

"She's going to get hurt! MIXIE! BAIL!"

Kuara poked Michitarou in the ribs, startling him. She and Gatomon had snuck up on them. 

"The green haired human is named Rev," Gatomon whispered. "He's the girl's sister. We've met them before." She glared in their direction.

"Michitarou, we'd better get back," said Gabumon.

Kuara put a finger to her lips. 'Be quiet!' she mouthed. 

Rev had stopped shouting. "Did you hear something?" he asked his companion.

"No. They've got more monsters though! I wish we'd brought Cambymon. These little kids are more than I expected."

"Who're you calling little?" Michitarou thought angrily, but didn't have the nerve to say it out loud.

"Agumon! You are sooo cool!" Kaori was yelling.

"Come on, the battle's over," Gatomon whispered. As they inched away, still on their stomachs, Kuara saw a folded piece of white paper. She picked it up and dropped it in her pocket to look at later.


End file.
